Up and Down Day

In his comment on yesterday's blog, my friend Denny suggested that I went through a whole range of emotions yesterday. He was correct, and today was no different. Since today was a mixture of boredom, sadness, and crowd control, I will present today's activities in a series of short thoughts I wrote throughout the day.

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I'm in Afton, and I can't stop looking at all the nice things Betty Baumann has made for me to sell here. The word of her passing has spread and all of her friends are mourning her loss and the loss of her great talent.

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It's a good day for mourning. The sky is dark as if rain is coming, although none is predicted until much later tonight. The Station is so hot and humid that I had to turn on the A/C. My first guests arrived before I did. A carload of French folks got an early start after staying in Baxter Springs, KS last night. The Leost family is from Paris, and the dad spoke fine English and had studied a lot for their trip.
Following that, a trucker from Gary, IN came in looking for a match to light a cigar. I guess I should keep some handy for such occasions. The best I could do was a couple pulled out of one of the vintage matchbooks in my collection, but that was fine with him. We aim to please! He also took a quick look at the car museum.

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Tattoo Man was in Pontiac, IL last weekend for the Bob Waldmire/Red Carpet Corridor celebration and obtained for Afton Station a tire from one of Bob's vehicles. Knowing that Bob traveled thousands of miles on Route 66 on that tire makes it special, and we will hang it in the new showroom.
Speaking of the new showroom, I can't wait to motivate someone (ahem, David) to create for me a means to begin hanging things on the walls. It looks very empty in its current state, and I've accumulated plenty with which to decorate it.

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I've had no visitors for the last two hours and I'm bored to death. I forgot to bring a book to read and it's hot in here, causing me to be too lazy to do much of anything. My energy level is ZERO!

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A nice lady named Terrie made the later hours very pleasant. She came to fetch my entire Afton postcard collection to scan and put on a disk for presentation at the annual Afton High School reunion. We had a great conversation and she really cheered me up. I'm glad to make this new friend!

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It's been one of THOSE days! Remember when I said I was bored? Forget it! Everyone showed up at the last moment, and I didn't get out of Afton until after 4 p.m. Super couples from Sutter Creek, CA and Miami, OK came after my regular closing hours, and I'm sure glad I remained open for them, because not long after that, our friends from the Czeck Republic came for a visit, a group of 11 led by Zdenek Jurasek. Zdenek has brought his groups before, and they're always great people. Good to see them! (Ironically, they bought quite a lot of Betty Baumann's merchandise.
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The Shaved Ice place opened right at 3 p.m. and seemed to have quite a good number of customers. Excellent!

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Ok, I'm done. And I'm not kidding. Time for me to collapse. Tomorrow is another day.